Inter-Professional Learning Styles and

Underpinning TheoriesAuthor: Ali Ewing, Principal Lecturer Learning and Teaching

2010 - 2011The University of Northampton

Park Campus, Boughton Green RoadNORTHAMPTON, UK. NN2 7AL

Learning styles

Students have different preferred learning styles.Nature – relatively fixed

Nurture – more flexible and open to change

Educators have different delivery styles.

What are the implications for your practice and forinter-professional education?

Constructive Alignment (Biggs 2003)

Making learning harmonise with other elements of curriculum or learning environment.

Teaching and assessment processes and resources support learning

The environment becomes consistent and hence aligned

The logistics of IPE?

How do we set-about delivering and facilitating Inter-professional Education (IPE)?

What issues might we encounter?

Often these get in the way, before we even consider education theory

What difficult logistics might be relevant to your workplace, when delivering IPE?

A paradigm shift

IPE has required a paradigm shift in professional education – not just cumulative development– a real shift from accepted and established approaches, with huge implications for Health & Social Care policies, for clinical practice and for organisations.

A new system of relations

Underpinning Theory – Influence IPE

IPE calls upon:

Borrowed Theory

Unique Theory

Theories should not be in a vacuum - they need to be useful in practice, for processing and illuminating IPE.

Practice as embodied theory

THEORISING PRACTICING

Informs

Makessense of

Contact Theory

Allport 1979 (America Deep South racial tensions) looked at the route of prejudice between different social groups and suggested reducing tension results from contact with memebers of the other group.

(Hewstone and Brown 1986)

Social Identity Theory

Behaviour towards others is determined by both personal traits and by the group to which they strongly adhere or belong. Within IPE work linked to looking at how IPE helps to clarify uni-professional identities.

(Turner 1999)

Social Learning Theory

Cognitive development emphasising the need for social interaction and inter personal connection between individuals.

(Vygotsky 1978)

Social exchange theory

The need to work with other groups for the exchange of benefits.

(Challis et al 1988)

Situated Learning Theory

Learning as it normally occurs, is a function of the activity, context and culture in which it occurs.

Social interaction and collaboration with knowledge presented in an authentic context – IPE in practice situations.

(Lave 1988 & 1991)

Co-operation theory

Relating to co-operation being required for survival of a species. Groups do better working in co-operation than alone.

(Axelrod 1984)

Relational awareness theory

Developed through research with health care teams. Explains why behaviours change under different conditions. Reflects the need for teams to appreciate which environment encourages positive behaviours.

(Drinka et al 1996)

Social defence theory

Under stress individuals fall back on uni-professional working and fail to collaborate and co-operate. Relieving stress and anxiety in interprofessional situations is vital.

(Menzies 1970)

Loss and change theory

Stress has been associated with IPE which asks people to change from what they are. People like to keep their professional identities and feel threatened by their loss.

(Atkins 1998)

Systems theory

Looks at how systems deal with complex problems and in relation to the NHS how different disciplines work together as a whole. The work of any one effects all the disciplines as a whole. Systems theory looks widely at all the players from stakeholders to professional, person community etc.

(Engel 1977)

‘fit’

Reflective practice has a critical role in ensuring the ‘fit’ of IPE and closing the theory - practice gap.

Inter-professional Assessment?

Issues associated with the assessment of IPE:-

Validity – does it measure what it is supposed to?

Reliability – are the results produced consistent and reliable?

Fairness – is the assessment a fair judge and equitable to all professions?

Practicality – in terms of time and resources for staff and for students?

Inter-professional Evaluation

Things you may wish to critically reflect upon...

What did you set-out to achieve?

Did you achieve what you wanted? If not, why not?

What worked? Its theoretical basis?

What might you do differently next time?

ReferencesAllport, G.W.(1979). The nature of prejudice, 24th edition, Perseus Books Publishing L.L.C., Cambridge, Mass.Atkins, (1998). Tribalism, loss and grief: issues for multi-professional education. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 12 (3): p303-307.Axelrod, (1984). The evolution of cooperation. Basic Books, New York.Biggs, J. (2003) Teaching for quality learning at univeresity 2nd edition, Open University Press, Buckingham.Challis, L., Fuller, S. and Henwood, M.(1988). Joint approaches to social policy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Drinka, T.J., Miller, T.F. and Goodman, B.M.(1996) Characterising motivational styles of professionals who work on interdisciplinary healthcare teams. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 10 (1), p51-61.Engel, G.L.(1977). The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196 (4286), p129-136.Hewstone, M. and Brown, R.(1986). Contact and Conflict in Intergroup Encounters, Blackwell, Oxford.Lave J. Cognition in Practice: Mind, mathematics & culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Lave, J, and Wenger, E. Situated Learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Menzies, I.E.P.(1970). The functioning of social systems as a defence against anxiety. Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London.Turner, J.(1999). Some current issues in research on social identity and self categorisation theories. In: Social Identity, (Eds N.Ellemers, R. Spears and B. Doosjie) , p6-64, Blackwell, OxfordVygotsky, L.S. Mind in Society. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1978.

This work was produced as part of the TIGER project and funded by JISC and the HEA in 2011. For further information see: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/tiger.

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